THE HUMBOLDT MURDERS

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A REPORTER AT LARGE about a triple murder in Nebraska committed Dec. 31, 1993, by Thomas Nissen and John Letter; one of their victims was a female cross-dresser who passed as male... Lotter was sentenced to death, partly based on Nissen's testimony... Writer visited Richardson County four times over the next two years. The separate trials of Nissen and Lotter in Falls City were open-and-shut affairs, each lasting less than two weeks, including jury deliberations. The only suspense was whether Nissen, who was being squeezed by the prosecution, would roll over on Lotter in exchange for not being sentenced to death; for Nissen, this was a no-brainer. Richardson County is in the southeastern corner of Nebraska, abutting Kansas and Missouri, and is washed by the Missouri River. It is the heart of the heartland... Tells about the cult there, led by Michael Ryan, which ended with lurid murder trials... The expense of the Ryan case, along with massive flood damage from the 1993 rains that sent the Missouri over its banks, have essentially tapped Richardson County out. What the county government did not need was another death-penalty trial that would further drain its exchequer. Tells how Phillip DeVine, Lisa Lambert, and Teena Renae Brandon were found dead in Lisa Lambert's farmhouse, Dec. 31, 1993... Describes the lifestyle of Teena Renae Brandon, who disguised herself off as a man, and had romances with many women in the Falls City area... To pay for her romances, Teena Brandon had fallen into the bad habit of stealing. A.T.M. cards were once source of income, forged checks another, other people's credit card accounts another... Her arrests mounted up, but in most instances the cases were dismissed, the charges were dropped, or the county attorney declined to prosecute... Tells how she was arrested on a forgery charge... Even the real possibility of prison did not deter Teena Brandon from forging more checks and stealing more A.T.M. cards in order to meet the financial demands of courtship... Tells how she was raped by Lotter and Nissen after a Christmas Eve party. She filed a rape complaint against them. After the Dec. 31 murders, Sheriff Charles Laux and Douglas Merz, the Richardson County attorney, scrambled to explain why they had not arrested Nissen and Lotter upon Teena Brandon's Christmas Day complaint... Writer describes the scenes on several talk shows where relatives and those peripherally involved in the case spoke... Describes the trials... Nissen was convicted in March, 1995, with his sentencing--to either death or life imprisonment--delayed pending his testimony against Lotter. Lotter, who still maintains his innocence, was sentenced to death. Writer received a letter from Nissen on Dec. 31, 1996. "Did you hear that I may receive a new trial?" he wrote. "I'm not sure how I feel about that."